Montclair State College - La Campana Yearbook (Upper Montclair, NJ)

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Kt rarg irpartm tit CLASS HISTORY ts«pt2jd ET us open our history book, classmates, and glance over its pages for a quick tJl 3(i review. No, it is not McLaughlin ' s School History this time; neither is it Btj ' iSM Our Ancestors in Europe nor Hart ' s Contemporaries. It is a record oi our joys and sorrows, our smiles and tears since we came to Montclair. Here on the first page is an account of the first day of school. Will we ever forget it? From various points all over the state we had come to assemble here in the auditorium. Each one looked around upon that sea of faces all so new, so strange ; and, consequently, everybody felt lost. Miss Marshall, with her gentle words and explicit directions, set us aright and endeared herself to us for all time to come. Turn the pages; but why dwell upon these — the stories of our dififerent classes, some of them pleasant, some otherwise? The pleasant ones vve ' ll always remember; the otherwise ones we wish to forget. Oh, yes ! Here we are, that day we took a trip to the woods to get acquainted with one another. It didn ' t take long for that ! Peace Day ! It came soon after our career here had begun and when our intense joy and excitement had somewhat abated, we came to the inspiring realization that it was at a particularly opportune time we were entering upon a great and patriotic work — that of commanding the second line of defense. Probably our first big part in any of the school social activities was at Christmas when we entertained the Seniors. It was then folks began to see how much pep ' ' and originality there was in the Junior B ' s, and since then we have had a brilliant career. Let us pass over the record of our marks at the end of January — letting bye- gones be bye-gones — and go on to the history of our Junior A term. This is an interesting chapter. Let us review its main topics and see to what a large extent the glory of the school rested in the hands of the Junior A ' s. The first big event was the A. A. minstrel show, and although given under the auspices of a school society, the majority of the members of the cast were from our class. The show was a success from beginning to end, and everybody enjoyed the snappy jokes and songs of our clever end men, the dance of the pickaninnies, and the splendid chorus. And then came the Junior A dance ! The gym was decorated with our beautiful crimson and silver ; bright shone the lights o ' er fair women and brave men ; the music was the best, that means the jazziest, ' of course, that could be secured, and everybody was happy. The clock cheated us though, for there couldn ' t have been more than thirty-five minutes in every hour, and closing time came all too soon. One of the red letter days of the term, and what was reallv one of the red letter days of our lives, was the twenty-fifth of March when Dr. Chapin closed school and let us go over to New York to welcome home our heroes of the 27th Division. Mont- clair Normal was well represented there that day, and our cheers were added to those of the millions as we slowly made our way through the vast surging throngs, or stood on soap boxes and garbage pails to catch a glimpse of the marching soldiers. We came home that night thrilled as we had never been before. It was after weeks and weeks of hard work on the part of Miss Fennel! and Miss McKinley that the Japanese pageant, The Two Gifts, was presented. The

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LITERACY DEPARTMENT

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artistic costumes, the exquisite music, the graceful dances, and the excellent work of the main characters all added to the beauty of the pageant and helped to make it the entire success it was. It was really a work of art, and much praise is due its direct- ors for their skillful management and untiring efforts. The principal parts were taken by Thomas Hutton, Mary Golden, and Marian Robbins, all members of our class, as were also many of the minor characters. Then Field Day came ! The dififerent classes had been holding secret meetings for weeks ahead, practicing their yells and songs, and when the great day finally arrived we all marched proudly down to the hockey field, each class confident of success. It was just a case of ' survival of the fittest, nowever. and in almost every event the Seniors and the Junior B ' s dropped out one by one, leaving us the victors ! Then how we cheered ! Our crimson caps were flung aloft, and our banner was carried triumph- antly into chapel and hung high on the front wall. Once more the importance of the Junior A ' s was recognized. Soon after this came Commencement, and then the two months ' recess to pre- pare for the long stretch of the Senior term. It seemed long to look ahead, but it has passed so swiftly ! Early in October we gave the faculty a tea at the dormitory. It was a cold, rainy day, so we had a cheery blaze in the living room fireplace and were very cozy for a while. Then the fun began ! Each teacher was given a colored cap to suit her particular type of beauty, and when we had the whole faculty lined up on the platform, we demanded an enter- tainment. They entertained us as we had never been entertained before. Each one did an individual stunt, a story, a dance, a recitation, or a song, and then the entire chorus sang The Old Family Tooth Brush. Then came the tea, served by dainty Senior maidens, and this ended the afternoon ' s pleasure. Everybody had a good time. We found out how very human our teachers were, after all, and we liked them, oh, so much better ! The Hallowe ' en party this year was a great affair as usual. The whole student body appeared in costume, and all sorts of unique figures inhabited the gym that day. We presented a dramatization of Riley ' s Little Orphant Annie, w-ith Marion Miner in the title role, and at the same time in her perpetual role of making people laugh. Not the least eft ective part of the entertainment was the singing of Little Orphant Annie by the Glee Club. Doughnuts, cider and apples were served later. This has been a very busy term — busy and happy. We are looking forward eagerly to our Senior Class Dance in January, and are anticipating at least one more glorious time together before our practice work begins. Then in June, of course, we come back for the greatest event of all — Commencement. It does not seem fitting to close our history without a word of appreciation to Dr; Chapin and all our teachers to whom we owe so much : we will try to prove ourselves worthy of their generous aid and kind encouragement. To the present Juniors we wish all the happiness and success possible for them to achieve. We, ourselves, will never forget our own happy days at ] Iontclair Normal School. Ell. M. y H.art.